The Last Party

by Adele Mailer

A full account of Adele Mailer's volatile marriage to Norman Mailer a marriage that spanned drug binges, sexual license, and wild parties.

380 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jon]

Norman Mailer himself told Adele Morales Mailer, who was his second wife, it was okay with him if she published this memoir, but he certainly doesn't come off well. Long-time Mailer-watchers will find familiar stories here--Norman fighting with a sailor who'd called his poodle "queer" (and getting the worst of it), Norman yelling "Taxi!" at a Provincetown cop car (and getting 15 stitches' worth of club-induced damage to his head), culminating in his infamous stabbing of Morales Mailer. It's interesting to hear these stories from Adele's perspective (compare her account of the Provincetown incident with "Massachusetts Vs. Mailer" by Dwight Macdonald, for example). Throughout it all the Good Norman never entirely disappears--Norman encouraged Adele's artistic ambitions and fought unsuccessfully to have a painting of hers used on the cover of his novel THE DEER PARK. This book reminds me somewhat of Alice Denham's SLEEPING WITH BAD BOYS (memoir by a woman-about-town on the 50s NYC art/lit. scene) but--despite Denham's high opinion of her own literary abilities--Morales Mailer is a better writer than Denham, more empathetic, less superficial, and more inclined to take partial responsibility for the problems she experienced, rather than blaming every failure on that era's admittedly pervasive sexism.

[Zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fuck Norman Mailer. All my homies hate Norman Mailer.

The Last Party is one of those wild fucking stories where you just can't believe it actually happened. Mailer is one of the literary field's greatest real life villains. An insecure, misogynist manchild thug with a thesaurus. He's painted as an absolute monster here, validly so. But more so, we get a picture of a whole doomed marriage. One where the stabbing was almost inevitable.

[Shawna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I read it after I suffered through "Armies of the Night" because I wanted to know a little bit more about the narcissist who wrote it. Adele tells of the fateful night that Norman stabbed her and the other various excesses of their lives together. She writes derisively of the "star-fuckers" that followed her ex-husband around, but I noted she does still use his name decades after their divorce, so perhaps she should look into a mirror before she condemns. This book is probably only of interest to those who are already fans of Mailer's body of work.

[Jettz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting from a historical sense and a good glimpse into the literary world of NYC and the East Coast. However, her thirst for revenge against Mailer is evident in the pages and she is never quite honest about her own responsibilities. At times I felt like I was reading about the Burton/Taylor characters in 'Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?'.

[Jody Ogle schardin hallonquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was interesting however I thought she would include how her life has been since the stabbing. She was quite the enabling spouse yet a strong survivor.